Veterans group claims victory in keeping 'America' tradition

RIDLEY TOWNSHIP -- Walt Waite, vice president of the USS America Carrier Veterans Association, learned firsthand that you can fight city hall -- and win.

In this case, Waite's association was fighting the U.S. Navy and Congress at various times to make sure the name of a Navy vessel would continue to carry on the tradition that began with the American Revolution and was carried on through the first Gulf War, when three warships have sailed with the name America.

In October, the Navy christened the amphibious assault ship the USS America (LHA6) in Pascagoula, Miss.

And sometime in early 2014, the America will be commissioned somewhere on the East Coast. Her home port is in San Diego.

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"In 1996, the America carrier was decommissioned after three tours in Vietnam and one in the Gulf War and brought to the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1997. Eventually, it was used as a test platform for explosives to learn how to build aircraft carriers stronger," said Waite of the Milmont Park section of Ridley Township. "The ship was sunk and now rests in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Bermuda, off the border of North Carolina and South Carolina, 17,500 feet down."

The scuttling of the America spurred the carrier veterans association into action to make sure a ship called America would be carried on. Waite said the association got no help from Congress or the Navy Department in its quest to name an aircraft carrier being built in the early 2000s that was eventually named the Gerald Ford.

"We surveyed our membership and asked if we should wait for another carrier to be named America or try for a ship that was to be built in 2009," Waite said.

The decision of the 600 members was to try to name the amphibious assault ship after the storied aircraft carrier that was resting on the bottom of the Atlantic.

"In the summer of 2008, at the association's reunion in Florida, Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter came to the reunion and agreed that the name of the next ship would be the America and the 150 people in the room went nuts," Waite said.

The carrier veterans association was well represented when the newest USS America was christened last month.

Waite has fond memories of his days aboard the carrier America in 1967-68 during the Vietnam War.

"One of my jobs on the carrier, when I was 19, was at the helm and I was actually steering the ship. Prior to that, the biggest thing I had steered was a 1960 Chevy," Waite said with a chuckle.

For more information on the carrier veterans association, long on to www.ussamerica.org, or call Waite at 610-585-2155.